Monday, June 22, 2009

sour cherry freezer jam

at the community garden where some friends and i have a plot, they have communal fruit trees. they are magical. and right now, the sour cherry tree is heading toward ripeness.

off the tree, the sour cherries are a little bit, some might say, sour. but fixed up with a little bit of sugar and turned into preserves? MAGIC.

freezer jam is nice because you don't cook anything, so you get to retain the really fresh flavor of whatever you are preserving. with cherries straight from the tree, that's extra exciting.

you will need:

  • sour cherries (though you could do this with sweet, also, just with less sugar)

  • a lemon or lime (or at least lemon or lime juice)

  • sugar

  • fruit pectin



all photos by shayn.

first, you need to pit and wash yr cherries.


next, mash them up in a bowl and figure out how much you have once they are mashed (yes, you can use a measuring cup if you want).


if you are using sour cherries, add about twice as much sugar as you have cherries. if using sweet cherries, maybe use a 1:1 ratio and then add more to taste if needed?


mix until the well blended, then let sit for 10 minutes (note the masher not moving!)


while it is sitting, you can juice limes or lemon or just pour some juice into a cup. for about 2/3c of cherries, we used a couple of tablespoons of lime juice. look what a good camera this is! you can see the sugar granules on my hands!


after the 10 minutes, combine the lime juice with a package of pectin and stir to blend.


whisk the pectin/juice mixture into the cherries until thoroughly combined--it will thicken a little, but not all the way


pour into a freezer-safe container, put in the freezer, and you're done!


except! then, you have to eat it!!!

2 comments:

Kasey H. said...

Do you know if they care if people who don't have a garden there pick cherries? What communal garden do you garden at?

Heather Marie said...

Thanks for this recipe! Yum.